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Chapter - 109
🕑 Added 2025-04-20 16:03:09 +0000 UTC[Title : My Team?]
….
The office had calmed after the whirlwind of revelations.
Gwendolyn’s voice still echoed faintly in Regal’s head, but time was moving again.
Regal stood, brushing a few specs of lint from his coat.
“Alright, I am heading out.” He said.
Gregor looked up from the notepad he was already scribbling in again. “You sure? Could use another set of eyes on the [Solo Leveling] panel revisions.”
Regal gave him a crooked smile. “I trust you. And I have got my own monsters to wrangle.”
Gregor grinned faintly, rising to his feet. They shook hands.
“Good luck.” Gregor said, genuine in tone.
“You too.” Regal replied, then turned and walked out.
....
Once Regal left, the comic division continued alive with energy.
The digital art bullpen stretched across the floor - rows of tablets, ultra-wide monitors, sketch pads, and lightboxes. Two colorists were reviewing gradient overlays while the animation tech team monitored the cloud-render queue.
Gregor slid back into work mode like it was muscle memory.
His team was already at their desks, digital boards aglow.
“All right, team.” Gregor called, clapping his hands once. “We are back on [Solo Leveling] Chapter 3 layout - tighten the pacing between pages 5 and 9, and we will resync the climax on 12. We will rework the panel flow so it lands harder. Also, double-check weapon consistency. Jinwoo’s dagger is still off by a few pixels in shot 19.”
A flurry of typing, pen strokes, and Cintiq styluses followed.
….
[EverLeaf Office]
The skyline outside was bathed in orange dusk, casting soft shadows across.
Gwendolyn’s minimalist desk. A thick binder lay open across it, labeled [MDC Internal Structure: 2009–Present].
“Where do we begin?” Maggie asked, quietly.
Gwendolyn didn’t respond right away.
She was staring at a small picture frame on her phone, an old black-and-white photo: Her father. Jerry Siegel, beside him.
Only now did she answer.
“I need a full breakdown.” She said. “Current MDC board members. Publicly known ones… Anyone with old ties to my father.”
She flipped pages carefully, fingers resting over the names.
Carrow. Tolliver.
These two weren’t just board members - they were the face of MDC.
Carrow, her father’s half-brother. Tolliver, practically his family.
She didn’t just know them by reputation. She remembered them. From the hallways of her childhood. From voices in the next room when the grown-ups thought she wasn’t listening.
Maggie stepped in, tablet in hand. “You wanted the investor to spread too?”
Gwendolyn nodded. “Walk me through it.”
Maggie tapped once. A web of data blinked onto the screen.
“Five major investor groups hold just over 70% of MDC’s stake. Three have started pulling back, ever since the Q2 crash in 2008. If one more wavers, the board will be forced to reassess liquidity. That’s where we strike.”
Gwendolyn nodded slowly, thinking.
“Good. Set up two calls - Carrow first thing in the morning. Tolliver tomorrow night, her time zone.”
Maggie was already typing.
Gwendolyn exhaled through her nose, her eyes drifting back to the faded photo on her phone.
“Maybe it’s time I finally had that conversation with my father.”
….
Regal stood by a corkboard in his living room, half in the shadows.
The board was filled with planning - sticky notes, printed timelines, rough concept art, all tacked up.
“[The Hangover.]” He muttered to himself.
He pulled out a note labeled.
“Q1 - 2012 Concept Pitch.” He pinned it on the left corner.
They hadn’t started official pre-production.
He hadn’t even pitched the story to any studio yet.
Just mapped it in his head.
Next to it - another paper, marked [Harry Potter] - Pre-Production Estimate.
Not for half a year. But he wanted to build the world from scratch.
Then finally - he pinned a new label, bold and red.
This one - MDC.
MarvelD Comics.
The board was still mostly blank, but Gwendolyn’s call had shifted everything.
He grabbed a marker, leaned in, and underlined a word beneath the MDC heading:
“Entry.”
The door wasn’t open yet - but it wasn’t locked anymore.
Regal took a few steps back.
Three pillars. One dream.
He didn’t know yet if it was madness.
But he was moving.
And now, so was everyone else.
….
[One Week Later]
[ARTICLE BY MICHAEL ROWE]
[Who Is This Guy? And How Did He Pull This Off?]
Let’s be honest. No one was expecting this from Regal Seraphsail.
A year ago, his name barely registered in the industry.
His debut, [Following], was one of those quiet curiosities - tight, moody, full of promise but clearly low-budget and boxed-in.
Smart, but small. One of those films critics admire, studios ignore, and film students post essays about on Vimeo.
And now here he is. Dropping [Death Note] like a goddamn thunderclap.
So the real question is… what happened in between?
Did he level up?
Did he grind through two years of rewrites, shadow other directors, sell his soul to Sorkin in a back alley?
Or, more likely, was it always there?
Maybe [Following] wasn’t a taste of what he could do. Maybe it was a version of what he had to do.
Constraints. Micro-budget. Unproven. It was him working with scraps. Making chess moves on a checkered napkin. Clever, but caged.
[Death Note]? That was the first time he got handed the whole board.
And when he finally did?
He didn’t just direct the game. He rigged it.
So maybe he didn’t ‘grow fast’.
Maybe we just underestimated what was hiding under that first film.
And if this is him at film number two… what the hell does film three look like?
….
[The Numbers Game He Wasn’t Supposed to Win — But Did]
Let’s talk numbers.
Not because they usually matter, but because this time, they shouldn’t have made sense.
[Death Note] was not built to win box office wars. It was R-rated. Talky. Introspective. No capes, no easy kills, no broad appeal.
And yet?
Here is what went down.
It launched Fed 16, 2011 - same day as, [Mastor] a $180 million movie with high-concept sci-fi epic set in a dystopian future, IMAX saturation, toys, lunchboxes, and a year of marketing muscle behind it.
Regal’s film barely got 2,500 screens.
Then something weird happened.
Week two - [Death Note] didn’t drop 50%.
It held. Word of mouth. Forum threads. Midnight screenings.
Week three: It gained screens.
By the end of its run, it had pulled:
$309 Million domestic.
$166 Million international.
$475 Million global theatrical
All on a $60-70 million budget
With an R-rating, minimal merchandising, and zero family appeal
And here is the punchline?
The industry still doesn’t know how to explain it.
Because no one expected Regal Seraphsail to walk in, flip the table, and turn a morally ambiguous Japanese folk story into the smartest $475 million gut punch of the year.
But he did.
And now every studio exec in town is suddenly googling his name.
….
[The Regal Blueprint – Why This Directory Isn’t Like the Others]
Let me be clear, Regal doesn’t direct like most directors.
In the circles I have spoken with, there’s a phrase quietly being used: “Regal directs like L solves.”
In interviews, Regal rarely reveals his process. He is known for doing multiple drafts alone, obsessively rewriting structure until it locks.
But what we can gather, he rewrites alone.
But then… the credit:
[Written and Directed by Regal Seraphsail & Team]
Same as his last film, [Following].
And again, no one knows who ‘Team’ is.
Studio? Silent.
Editor? Shrugged.
His own AD? “No idea.”
And honestly?
I believe them.
But I am left with one, final question.
Not about the film.
About the man behind it.
Who is this Team?
Just a genuine curiosity.
….
Michael Weston is a senior contributor at Screenbound Magazine, covering film, storytelling, and the people who shape both.
You can reach him at michael.w@screenbound.com or follow his work on Twittar@mwestwrites.
….
“Huh… My team, huh?” Regal muttered, eyes still on the article glowing faintly on his laptop screen.
He had already seen it hours ago, Gwendolyn had sent it first, then Keanu, then a steady stream from four more people. One by one, the pings came in.
…and he knows the reason too.
To show him that his work is getting appreciated.
He exhaled once - half smirk, half sigh - and swiped the tab away.
Then he opened the system.
He slid into the notifications panel like muscle memory.
….
•-------[NOTIFICATIONS]-------•
Ⓘ [Solo Leveling] –> [Completed(✓)]
Ⓘ [Following:] –> [Completed(✓)]
Ⓘ [Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint:] –> [Completed(✓)]
Ⓘ [First TV Show Participation:] –> [Completed(✓)]
Ⓘ [Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone:] Book –> [Completed(✓)]
….
Ⓘ [Lord of the Mysteries]
–> [Collect Accumulated Rewards:] [Y/N]
(【┘】- 40 days of Accumulated Rewards)
….
Ⓘ [Death Note]
–> [Collect Accumulated Rewards:] [Y/N]
(【┘】- 28 days of Accumulated Rewards)
….
Ⓘ [Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets] Book
–> [Collect Accumulated Rewards:] [Y/N]
(【┘】- 26 days of Accumulated Rewards)
•---------------------------•
He paused for a second, eyes landing on Sorcerer’s Stone.
Completed.
The system had marked it as such on the same day the second book dropped.
That couldn’t be a coincidence.
And it wasn’t.
Three projects were running now, actively working, steadily feeding his EP pool.
So one after another without any delay he collected the reward.
….
•---------------------------•
「Ding! User successfully collected [Death Note] rewards!」
[Total Ticket Sales:] 66,666,667
[Total EP Earned:] 33,333,334
「Your total EP is now: 2,058,536 + ↑16,666,667 = 18,725,203」
•---------------------------•
….
•---------------------------•
「Ding! User successfully collected [Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets] rewards!」
[Total Physical Copies Sold:] 4,700,000
[Total EP Earned:] 7,050,000
「Your total EP is now: 18,725,203 + ↑7,050,000 = 25,775,203」
•---------------------------•
….
•---•
「Ding! User successfully collected [Lord of the Mysteries] rewards!」
[Total View Count:] 4,502,009 + ↑8,811,999 = 13,314,008
[Total EP Earned:] 881,200
「Your total EP is now: 25,775,203 + ↑881,200 = 26,656,403」
•---•
It had been exactly 80 days since [Lord of the Mysteries] launched on the Web Novel platform, following in the footsteps of its two predecessors.
Regal had already collected his first reward on Day 40.
Now, another 40 days had passed… and this time, all he had received was 800,000 EP.
Which, honestly, felt like pocket change compared to what others were pulling in.
But right now, he needs more web novels.
Not for fame, but for expansion - into comics. That’s where the next stage of the EP would come from.
Sure, there were other ways to earn EP. But it was still amusing to Regal how something that used to be his main source of income just a year ago now felt like lunch money.
Even with 26.6 million EP sitting in his system wallet, Regal wasn’t exactly feeling rich.
Because he knew what was coming.
Just the scripts for [Harry Potter] would burn through millions.
Then there was the [Title Token] he still hadn’t used.
Could he buy more than just the scripts? Maybe full production blueprints? Early worldbuilding frameworks? Something deeper?
He didn’t know yet.
But he knew one thing: it was time to use that token soon.
….
[To be continued…]
●──────●◎●──────●
Comments
Mattison brown
would the total not be above 41,264,534 since that the amount that he earned he got 33,333,334 just from the movie
